MOLLY Spicer was tickled pink after Ken Dodd sent her a beautiful bouquet on her 100th birthday.

The pair have been good friends since the comedian, famous for his buck teeth and tickling stick, performed alongside her ventriloquist son Dennis on stage and screen in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Molly, who also received a card from the Queen, was joined by three generations of family and numerous friends for her big day at the Elsie Jones residential home, in Earlsdon, Coventry.

She said: “It’s very exciting, I never dreamt that I’d have a party this lovely; I was expecting a quiet afternoon.

“I’ve had some beautiful flowers and a cake. I’m very pleased with the card from the Queen, I’ve been waiting for that!”

Molly said the key to a long life was “working hard and never slowing down”.

She was born in the East End of London as one of 24 children, but moved to the Stoke area of Coventry around 60 years ago after meeting Morris factory worker Bill, who died in 1979.

In a varied career, she worked as an auxiliary nurse at Gulson Road Hospital, as a home help, at GEC in Coventry and in the café at a Butlin’s holiday camp.

The couple had three children, Dennis, who was tragically killed in a car crash in 1964 after appearing at the Royal Variety Performance, and daughters June, now aged 72, and Rosemary, now aged 63. Molly also has five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Rosemary said: “Mum is a very giving person. She would still be going shopping and pushing people around in their wheelchairs if she could. She does not consider herself old.”

Another home resident, Gladys Gascoigne, is due to celebrate her 100th birthday on August 4.

Meanwhile, Dorothy Roberts celebrated her centenary on Tuesday with a visit from the Lord Mayor of Coventry, Coun Jack Harrison.

The 100-year-old, whose home is in Wyken, was one of 11 children and lived in a lock cottage by the canal at Napton-on-the-Hill, near Southam in south Warwickshire.

She went into service aged just15 with a doctor in Rugby but came out at the age of 24 to look after her dad and siblings after her mum died.

Dorothy married John Tift three years later and the couple had one daughter, Ann Brain.

During the war Dorothy worked in the offices of Coventry Corporation Transport.

John died in 1964 and Dorothy later married Alfred Roberts, who died in 1981.

She puts her long life down to “hard work and a nip of brandy before bed.”